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Wednesday, 26 October 2005 - Reported by Shaun Lyon
More coverage of yesterday's big win for Doctor Who at the National Television Awards:
Billie Piper featured on the cover of "Daily Mirror" (with the caption "Brillie!" and which was shown on the 25th October edition of BBC2's "Newsnight"), as well as the "Daily Star" and "The Sun" (with the title "Who Dunnit!"). "Doctor Who" was the main feature of the accompanying articles with "Daily Star" focussing on how Billie seemed to have 'dressed down' for the awards (in an item titled "Doctor Timelords It: Billie the scruff's night of triumph") while the item in "The Sun" was headlined "Hip Hip Who-Ray: TV gongs for Dr and Daleks".
Manchester Online reported that the reason Christopher Ecclestondid not attend was because he was suffering from the flu. The exact words of his note, read by Russell T Davies, were, "I am very sorry I can't be there tonight – a heartfelt thank you to the British public for their encouragement over the past 17 years. I’d like to dedicate this award to the memory of a little boy who loved Doctor Who and loved life, Kieran Wynne." As the Manchester Online reported, Eccleston's agent later explained that the star had met the boy before he died but could give no other details; it says that the actor had planned to attend the awards but was struck down with flu and also felt ill after having injections in advance of a forthcoming trip abroad.
Clips from the ceremony have been shown today on ITV news, including a very emotional Piper accepting her award, while clips from "Aliens of London" and "World War Three" were briefly played on the screens. Meanwhile, the websiteof ITV -- which lost its timeslot to Doctor Who earlier this year when the show beat their variety series "Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway" -- acknowledges its own winners, but doesn't note any of the BBC's! Says today's MediaGuardian Monkey column: "You can understand why ITV might be a bit miffed, after the BBC gate-crashed its National TV Awards last night and made off with the best actor, actress and drama awards for Doctor Who and the best soap gong for EastEnders. But still, it seems a tad churlish for ITV.com's report on the bash today not even to mention the BBC winners. Instead, ITV.com leads on 'X Factor cleans up at TV Awards' - although to be fair, the talent did win two gongs - and goes on to list all the other ITV winners. ITV.com - first with the news. As long as it's about ITV. "
BBC Wales Radio had quite a bit on the awards this morning, including an interview over the phone with producer Phil Collinson. He said how pleased he was and so on, and revealed that the prize will be kept in the BBC’s Drama Dept offices in Llandaff. He also mentioned that they were half way through filming the new series, and were looking for it to return to the screen at Easter time.
(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, John Bowman, Jamie Austin, Paul Hayes, Simon Mapp and Chuck Foster. Photo of Billie Piper is copyright to Ian West/Press Association)





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